Motivational Speaker Brad Montgomery | Inspirational Humor http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com Connecting Humor at Work To Your Bottom Line Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:35:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 WHY I HATE MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2012/02/07/i-hate-motivational-speakers/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2012/02/07/i-hate-motivational-speakers/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:48:28 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=833 Some motivational speakers have a hidden agenda -- read on to find out about their technique.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPIjnEPDFAs

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery and I’ve got something to tell you about what I hate about motivational speakers. Alright, what I hate about motivational speakers doesn’t apply to all speakers. It applies to some of them and when you’re picking a speaker, you might as well know ahead of time what to look for.

One of the things I hate about some motivational speakers is their whole game, their whole plan during that entire keynote speech is to pry your wallet out of your pants or your purse, to pry it open and to pry out that credit card so you can sign up for their coaching or their seminar or their boot camp or whatever. I don’t have any problem, by the way, with seminars and boot camps and all that stuff. What I do have a problem with is motivational speakers who don’t motivate you to do anything other than give them money.

Well, they have a lot of techniques. These are really bright people. Some of them are my good friends. I don’t mind telling you. They’re really good people, but they just have a crazy business model and their business model involves this technique.

The technique is don’t tell you what you need to know. Don’t give you the answers to the questions you have. Don’t help you with your concerns and your problems. Instead, they kind of label your pain and they dig at it a little bit and they say, wouldn’t it be great if you had relief from this pain and then they say, and you can. You can buy this product. You can buy this service. Right?

So in other words, they don’t help you. All they do is they’ll help you label the problem, they tell you how great you would feel, how much better off you would be, how much richer you would be, how much healthier you would be, how much happier you would be if you didn’t have that problem and then they tell you the answer to that problem is in their product.

Alright, to me, that’s just crap. Here’s why. My clients hire me to deliver value for their audiences. They want me to come and create lasting behavior change for their organization, their people, their company, whatever. And that means that my job is to come in and give it to them.

My job is not to hold back, whereas these other motivational speakers’ job is to sell. Their job isn’t to create lasting change, their job is to sell crap that may or may not create lasting change. That means, they come in there and all they do is they get you excited and you feel great and you, oh my gosh and really in the end, you realize, I didn’t get anything. I didn’t get anything.

What I got was these unbelievably talented speakers who use very clever, honed techniques to make me feel like what I got and really all you got was motivated to buy the next thing, the next package, the next service, the next DVD series, whatever. That makes me crazy.

Alright, just a pet peeve. I just happened to be invited to work for a seminar and that was their business model. It was a weird deal. They are bringing in speakers who are getting paid zippo, but they’re happy to be paid zippo because they are going to be selling from the platform. They’re going to be selling their coaching and their whatever, but they wanted me to come and master of ceremonies, to emcee the whole thing and also to motivate them generally.

So it was a weird thing. They wanted me to actually give value and set them up for these other speakers who were not going to give value, they were going to give a sales pitch. They were going to give motivation to spend and in the end, I just didn’t feel like that was a good fit for me because it just felt icky. It just felt icky.

Hire A Motivational Speaker That Delivers Real Value

Alright, if you want to go to a boot camp, go to a boot camp. You want to buy a training series from people that you think can teach you, do it. But when you’re booking a speaker, what I want you to do is really consider whether or not that speaker is going to give you value and help move your people to where they need to be moved and to where you want them to be moved or if that speaker is going to motivate them to get out their credit card and sign up for some crazy stuff.

Alright, it’s Brad Montgomery at bradmontgomery.com. Are you looking for a motivational speaker who delivers real value? I don’t even offer a boot camp. I don’t even have a DVD training series because I believe I give it to you on the platform. Alright, love to be your guy. Give us a call.Similar Posts:

]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2012/02/07/i-hate-motivational-speakers/feed/ 0 MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER VS. INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER? http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2012/01/31/motivational-speaker-vs-inspirational-speaker/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2012/01/31/motivational-speaker-vs-inspirational-speaker/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:55:42 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=836 Can your motivational speaker also inspire your audience?   YES -- and you should expect that.  Read on to find out why…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpkfuYsPcXc

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader, Inspirational AND Motivational

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery from bradmontgomery.com with a quick video about the difference between inspirational speakers versus motivational speakers.

So what’s the big deal with that in, it seems like we confuse them or we see the words related. They’re not quite the same, what’s the big deal? Alright, here’s how I see it. I’m a motivational speaker who is inspirational. Go figure.

Motivational speakers, what does that mean? Here’s the deal on motivation. I think motivational speakers address this issue: so many people in our society know exactly what to do, but for whatever reason or reasons, they’re not doing it. So what’s the problem? I’m thinking it’s motivation.

So all we have to do is figure out a way to get them to do what they’re not doing, get them to do what they know how to do but for some reason are failing to do and we call it a success. So for example, if your people are completely well-trained in customer service, but they’re providing crappy customer service, what they don’t need is more training. What they do need is motivation. Aha! Pakow! Motivational speaker.

So in this case, this motivational speaker, what I do is I use humor and levity to remind them of the power of customer service. I remind them how humor and levity and bringing your sense of humor to customer service will help make customer service more fun and if it’s more fun, my argument would be they’re more motivated to provide that which they already know how to do which is excellent customer service.

For crying out loud, we’ve all been around long enough to know what good and bad customer service is. Doing it isn’t that hard if you know exactly how to do it and my guess is you have already trained your people how to do it. What they’re lacking is motivation. So at least with customer service, there’s an example of motivational speaker.

So what’s an inspirational speaker? Well, I think inspirational speakers are people who have done amazing things and inspire you to do a little bit more, a little bit better, a little bit harder, a little bit stronger, whatever. So often, these are people that have done crazy things like they’ve climbed Mount Everest, they’ve run incredible Fortune 500 companies, they’ve done amazing things, right? And then by seeing them and hearing their story, maybe they’ve had some tragic accident in the past, whatever. By seeing them and hearing their story we’re inspired and we end up thinking, wow, if they can do that, those amazing things given their difficulties and their challenges, certainly I can do a little bit more given all the advantages I am blessed with right now. So I’m inspired, right? That is an inspirational speaker.

Well, I tend to think that you need to do both. To me, a really excellent motivational speaker is somebody who is also inspirational and in my particular case, here’s how I do that. I haven’t lived through some tragic accident. I have not climbed Mount Everest. I have not done some amazing thing. But on the other hand, what I feel like I do is I share with my audience and audiences, my story and my stories and generally speaking, my stories are sort of like, I’m like you, I have a lot of things in common with you.

Here’s how I’ve approached it and thought about it and I hope you come with me and hopefully that is inspirational and inspiring in a way to make them think, well Brad seems just like me. He seems to have handled this. Maybe I can do it too, a little bit different but still on target and then for my taste, we sort of lost it if we don’t add that motivational piece. If you’re inspired but you’re not motivated to change your behavior, if you’re not motivated to create lasting change, if you’re not motivated to change what you’re doing from point A to get to point B, then inspiration is nice, but if it doesn’t create action, it’s a fail.

A Motivational Speaker Who Is Funny and Inspirational

Alright, does that help? I hope so. So generally, my marketing stuff calls me a funny, motivational speaker. Whatever. I could be called an inspirational motivational speaker, but hopefully by defining those terms, it’ll help you to feel like your speaker.

While you’re searching for speakers, I’d love to be your guy. If you’re looking for a motivational speaker who happens to be funny and inspirational, I’d like to be your guy. There’s a link here, you can check my preview video. I’m currently filming this from a coffee shop. I’m on the road, trying to answer some questions and I was thinking about this and I wanted to just knock out a video.

Alright, contact us through bradmontgomery.com or funnymotivationalspeakers.com. If you’re looking for a speaker, one of the things you ought to do is ask them, what’s your take on motivation? What’s your take on inspiration? Where do you fall in that? And if your speaker has any experience at all and if they’ve thought about it at all, they’re going to have a darn good answer for that question.

Alright, love to chat with you and answer those questions in person. I’d love to find a way to customize a speech or keynote that fits you and your needs and your organization’s needs, whether or not you need motivation or inspiration. Have a great day! Cheers!Similar Posts:

]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2012/01/31/motivational-speaker-vs-inspirational-speaker/feed/ 0 Motivational Speaker Preview Video http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/12/17/motivational-preview-video/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/12/17/motivational-preview-video/#comments Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:26:20 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=795 As a

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UjkzBPFVIs

Leave a comment and let us know. Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Cheers!

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Business Speaker, Owner of a New VideoSimilar Posts:

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]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/12/17/motivational-preview-video/feed/ 1 Brad Talks Fun and Customer Experience to Employees at Enterprise Bank in MA http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/12/11/brad_montgomery_at_enterprise_bank/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/12/11/brad_montgomery_at_enterprise_bank/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:40:42 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=776 Brad had a blast working with employees at Enterprise Bank in MA recently. Here are video testimonials from employees about what his message meant to them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDeRefC5cgo

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Fan of Enterprise Bank

Related links:
More Banks That Love Brad!

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Speaker:  It turned out to be great.  Employees loved it.  I suggest you look him up and take him up on speaking at your next event.  Thank you.

Brad with audience:  What?  What?  Did I miss something?  What did I miss?      So here’s the deal.  We’re going to talk today about connecting fun and levity with excellence and what I love about you is you already get that.  Enterprise, you guys are experts at this.  You know, fun place to work, whatever.

Jamie:  Hi, I’m Jamie Gabriel.  I work for Enterprise Bank.  I’m the Senior Human Resources Manager and I just had the pleasure of working with Brad Montgomery on a all-employee meeting session.  Brad was lively and engaging and of course, as you would have expected, humorous.  His presentation was filled with excellent stories that people could take back and apply within their own life and he also brought in some of our own business challenges that we wanted to consider and he had some humor to those as well.

Next speaker:  Well, we have two sessions that Brad’s speaking at.  The morning session’s already happened, got a lot of great feedback.  People loved it, lots of laughs and we’re looking forward to his afternoon performance.

Jamie:  We had two sessions, one in the morning and Brad’s presentation was all the buzz throughout the course of the day.  So employees loved it, they felt energized and they left feeling like they could make a difference and be humorous in their own work environments.

Brad with audience:  What if I gave you a couple of specific ways to stay happy, to remind yourself to stay happy?  Would that be helpful?  Of course it would because we spend so much of our time at work. 

Fun at work makes us better at work

Doesn’t it make sense to invest some energy, some calories into making sure that time at work is fun?  And the science backs us up.  We know this.  We know that if we’re better, or we’re having fun at work, we’re better at work.  We’re healthier, right?  Wellness?  We saw that.  We’re healthier, we’re better, we’re more resilient.  We’re everything we need to be.  Customer experience is easier.  I just dropped that customer experience in there because it’s in my contract, so.

Next speaker:  Brad really had them laughing and his message hit home for our employees.

Next speaker:  Yes, actually, I would say Brad’s experience as a certified speaking professional, you can tell that he’s taken the time to get to know the company and you don’t always get that with other speakers.  So I think this is probably one of the best ones we’ve had so far.

I love working with banks and I’d love to be on your team to bring a laugh-out-loud message of fun and your bottom-line. Call me, we’ll put together an unforgettable experience for your next meeting! Brad

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]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/12/11/brad_montgomery_at_enterprise_bank/feed/ 1 Customization (not tailoring) is the key to an outstanding presentation http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/11/22/customized_motivational_speeches/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/11/22/customized_motivational_speeches/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:29:53 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=748 In this blog post, Brad Montgomery explains the difference between Customization and Tailoring in a keynote speech -- and why that is very important to you as a meeting planner.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=el9dnMpHC1I

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader

Related Posts:
Why Book Brad?

What does it mean to customize a Keynote Speech?

Lots of motivational speakers say that they customize their speech, but in my experience, very few actually do. Instead, what they do is tailor a speech. So what’s the difference between tailoring a keynote speech and customizing a motivational speech? Well, for me, the difference is huge.

Tailoring means often the speakers will drop in a catch phrase, or a brand name, or a company name, or an association name into some sort of pre-prepared story or sentence and then repeat that technique three times in a one-hour keynote and then claim that that program has been customized. Well, pish! Customization is genuine changing of the program to meet the client’s needs.

Audiences need to know that their speaker understands them, gets them, and is fully connected with their needs, their pains, their desires, their joys and their jobs. So, tailoring just isn’t sufficient for today’s audience.

A Motivational Speaker That Can Customize A Keynote Speech

Because I’m a comedian motivational speaker, tailoring for me means more than just making sure the message is relevant and on track. For me, customizing is more than having a five quick minute conversation with a client to find out what their concerns are. For me, customization is much more than helping a specific organization get from point A to point B in concert with the top decision-maker’s desires. For me, what customization means is to make the program all of those things and in addition, make it really funny by putting in specific, relevant jokes just for that group, those people and that event.

So, before my programs I always interview the top decision-makers for the organization and besides looking for all of their desires for change and for what their people need to hear, what I do in addition is look for places where I can write specific jokes and comedy bits for that group. So it’s not uncommon for me to create full sections of my program specifically for that event and that organization.

If you are considering hiring a motivational keynote speaker, I encourage you to check their references, to have a lengthy conversation with them, and to find out what they can deliver is consistent with what you need.

But, in addition to that, I ask you to consider what it would mean to you if your motivational speaker came with a truly extraordinary customized motivational speech for your organization. And if you feel that customization would help your audience connect to your speaker and therefore, improve the return on investment for that speaker, make sure your speaker customizes; not tailors.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker
Keynote Speaker
Master of CustomizationSimilar Posts:

]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/11/22/customized_motivational_speeches/feed/ 0 New Preview Video Exposed! http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/11/21/motivational-speaker-preview-video/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/11/21/motivational-speaker-preview-video/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:02:14 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=765 Yippee! Just finished editing our newest preview video. If you like it, click here ( http://youtu.be/6UjkzBPFVIs ) and on the YouTube page like it and subscribe to it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UjkzBPFVIs

Thanks so much.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Keynote Speaker, Business Speaker

Business Speaker Brad Montgomery

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]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/11/21/motivational-speaker-preview-video/feed/ 0 Don’t Make This Mistake When Hiring a Motivational Speaker http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/10/18/invest-more-for-lasting-value-from-your-speaker/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/10/18/invest-more-for-lasting-value-from-your-speaker/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:09:43 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=733 Hey, welcome back to my blog. It’s Brad Montgomery from bradmontgomery.com and funnymotivationalspeakers.com here with the series:

Top Mistakes People Make When Hiring a Motivational or Keynote Speaker.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzidtiIbWZI

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here

Yours,

Brad Montgomery

Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader, Would Love To Be On Your Team!

Related Posts:
It’s Not Just About The Money -- It’s About Lasting Change!

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

One of the problems I see happening a lot is really a mis-allocation of your convention or meeting budget. And I’d like you to consider spending a little bit more on your speaker than you thought. The big mistake I see is that people will invest a huge amount of money on things that have no lasting value or impact on their attendees and then spend very little on their professional, and the overall return on the investment for the meeting stinks.

What Your People Will Remember About the Motivational Speaker After the Convention Is Over

So here’s the question I want you to ask yourself as you’re deciding what to buy: what are your people going to remember after the convention is over? Are they more apt to remember the slightly better chicken that you upgraded to? Are they more apt to remember that you’ve got brownies instead of cookies? Are they more apt to remember that you got the really cool ice cream or whatever? I mean are they going to remember the fact that you upgraded even your hotel or venue a slight bit? Or are they going to remember the speaker that came, shook them until it hurt, dumped them out of their chairs because they were laughing so hard, and six months later, a year later they’re still echoing and repeating what that speaker taught them? They’re still adapting techniques they’ve learned from that speaker. Are they going to remember that or what they had for their final dessert?

Of course, you know, I’m biased. I’m a speaker. I’d like you to invest in me, I don’t mind telling you. But no matter who you hire I want you to consider what is going to make the most difference for the longest amount of time to your people. My guess is that you want them to have a good time. That’s a great idea. My guess is you want to treat them really well and feed them really well. That’s a great idea. But I know also that at the very basic level, you’re trying to create lasting behavior change. And my suggestion to you would be to take some of that budget and reallocate it and get a top professional motivational speaker and pass on a few little extras that they will not remember.

Well I’d love to be your guy. If you’d like to talk to me about my fees and what we offer for it and why we think my investment is worth it, I hope you’ll give us a call, funnymotivationalspeakers.com. My name is Brad Montgomery. Make it a great day.

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]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/10/18/invest-more-for-lasting-value-from-your-speaker/feed/ 0 Hire a Motivational Speaker Who Is Meaningful and Relevant to YOUR Group http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/10/11/motivational-speaker-with-a-customized-program/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/10/11/motivational-speaker-with-a-customized-program/#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:11:54 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=705 Thanks for tuning in. We now present the thirteenth video blog in a series about how to get the most out of your motivational speaker.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXC4XC72grg

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here

Yours,

Brad Montgomery

Motivational Speaker, Speaker Who Customizes YOUR Message

Related Posts:
No Matter What the Topic, Brad will customize his message to YOUR group!

 

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery from bradmontgomery.com with a continuing video series on top mistakes people make when choosing or hiring a motivational speaker or a keynote speaker. All right, one of the mistakes I see a lot is people selecting a motivational speaker who will not or cannot customize their message for you and your organization.

First of all, what is customize? Customize means…. By the way, it’s not tailor. Customize means creating an event, an experience for you and your team, for your organization. What customizing is not is just dropping a few little keywords, dropping in your message, dropping in your product name, dropping in your company name. No, no, no, no, no. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking creating an experience so that when your audience is sitting there in their seats watching the motivational speaker you chose for your convention, your audience knows that this speaker is there for them.

Now why is that so important? Because of the fact that our audiences are very sophisticated right now, it’s really important to put a speaker in front of them that they know is meaningful and relevant for them. That means if you’re able to put up a motivational speaker or keynote speaker on video and just like play their DVD, and it’s the same exact program you would have got had you brought that speaker in from the outside, I think you’re making a huge mistake. Your audience will know that it’s just, “Oh, like I’m watching the show,” and they’re not going to go for it.

Your audience doesn’t want to see a one-man show. They don’t want to see a presentation. What they want to see is a speaker who has relevant and meaningful ideas that are prepared and delivered to them, to their needs, to their problems, to their stresses, to their desires. And if you’re funny – I happen to be a funny motivational speaker – if you’re using humor, not only does that customized humor make sure that there is a deeper connection between your speaker and your audience, but it also, customized teamwork is funny. It’s just really, really funny. There’s nothing funnier than making jokes about your people, your acronyms, your buildings, your products, whatever.

Determining Whether The Motivational Speaker Can Customize His Program To Your Organization

All right, so here’s the favor I’m asking you. When you’re hiring that motivational speaker, when you’re talking to them on the phone, I want you to ask them this question: “What do you do to customize your program? How are you going to make it special for us?” And then listen. And if they’re good, if they’re top, if they’re pro, they’re going to have a lot of things to say about this.

I could talk about this topic for hours. If they say, “Well you know, what I do is I send out a little questionnaire and I ask you for your product names and I ask you for your company name and I ask you for the name of your top sales person ‘cause I’m going to put that person’s name in a little joke I’ve prepared,” no. That’s the wrong person. Find out what customizing means to your speaker and, you know, hold their feet to the fire. Grill them. See what they think.

I’d love to be your professional speaker. I’d love to be your keynote speaker if you’re looking for somebody who will customize and will talk to you until your done listening about what that means for you and your organization and what my speech or program would look like for your organization, give us a call. You can reach us through funnymotivationalspeakers.com or bradmontgomery.com.

So glad you’re here. Look for more videos at the links below on top mistakes people make when hiring a speaker. Really glad to have you.

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]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/10/11/motivational-speaker-with-a-customized-program/feed/ 1 When Should You Choose an Experienced Motivational Speaker Over a Celebrity Speaker? http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/09/29/choose-an-experienced-motivational-speaker/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/09/29/choose-an-experienced-motivational-speaker/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:30:41 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=684 Professional motivational speaker Brad Montgomery now presents the twelfth in a series of his video articles about:

How To Hire a Motivational Speaker

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsINew5AhQc

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here

Yours,

Brad Montgomery

Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Not a Celebrity (but a really, really good speaker)

Related Posts:

Why Book Brad?

 

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery with a tip about how to get the most return on your professional speaker or motivational speaker investment. Here’s the tip: consider experience over celebrity. So here’s, the deal, there’s two types of speakers. Okay, there’s more than two types of speakers, but if you kind of blur your eyes there’s two types of speakers. One of them are professional speakers, people who do this all the time. And the other one are celebrity speakers, people who have done something that’s amazing and now are talking about it. Well I’m going to confess to you there is one huge advantage to celebrity speakers. If you’re trying to build your audience, celebrity can help.

So for example, if you’re an association and you’re not sure about how many people you can get to your event, sometimes hiring a celebrity will be enough of an add to get people to come to your event. So that’s a good point, I can’t say anything about that. But I’d really like you to think long-term. Don’t think about this years conference; I want you to think about next years conference and the year after that. One of the best ways to get people to next years conference is to make sure that this years conference rocks.

And my suggestion to you is a killer speaker, period, is going to be better than a mediocre speaker, and generally speaking I think we can agree that experienced speakers are better than inexperienced speakers. So I want you to consider that. Listen to this quote of a real good pal of mine, another professional speaker told me that he was having a chat with the meeting planner, and the meeting planner told him, “Well you know what, we use the celebrities to bring the audience in, but we use people like you to make sure that the conference is good.” That’s a pretty good thought, isn’t it? I mean that’s a pretty deep thought, the meeting planner is confessing that in their experience celebrity speakers generally are not as good as full-time professional speakers, you know.

Look For Experience When Hiring Motivational Speaker

So look for experience. How are you going to know about experience? Ask. When you’re considering hiring a motivational speaker I want you to ask this question, “Tell me about your experience.” And if they say, “Well, you know what, I’ve done some really, really amazing things in my lifetime up to this point. Now, you know, I’ve done it four times,” that’s a hint. I want you to ask another follow up question, “And what experience do you have in my niche, in my industry for audiences like mine?” And if they say, “None, I’ve never done it,” I want you to follow up with that, because your audience not only deserves, but really as time goes on and our audiences become more media savvy, they require a professional speaker who completely gets them and they will see a fraud, somebody who doesn’t understand them or their audience, them or their distresses, their problems, their joys, their job. They will understand, they hate that and they’ll turn on you. Trust me, I’ve seen it.

So I’d love to be your guy. I’m not a celebrity. I’m not famous. But I’m good, and I’d love to be part of your team. Give us a call and we’ll talk about how we can help you and your association, your meeting, your conference get to where you want them to be. Bradmontgomery.com or you can find us at funnymotivationalspeakers.com. Have a great day.

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]]> http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/09/29/choose-an-experienced-motivational-speaker/feed/ 1 The Importance of Coaching your Motivational Keynote Speaker http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/09/23/coaching-your-motivational-keynote-speaker/ http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/2011/09/23/coaching-your-motivational-keynote-speaker/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:42:39 +0000 Brad http://www.funnymotivationalspeakers.com/?p=640 We now present the eleventh in a series of video articles about:

How to Work With Your Motivational Keynote Speaker to get the Most From Your Conference Investment

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt8cYVcwqbg

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Team Player for YOU

Related Articles and/or Videos:
Brad’s actual coaching tool -- the Pre-Engagement Questionnaire

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery from funnymotivationalspeakers.com, and bradmontgomery.com, with a continuing series of videos about how to hire a motivational speaker. What do you need to know to choose your motivational speaker? Well one of the mistakes I see people making when hiring a motivational speaker is not coaching your speaker with enough information to really deliver the presentation that you paid for.

So what do I mean by that? A few times, not many, but a few times I’ve had clients who’ve gone through the trouble to choose me partly because I customize my programs. And then what they do is because they’re busy, because they have a life and because organizing this meeting is one of the many things in their life on their list and organizing their keynote speaker is one of the many things on that list, they never get around to really coaching. Don’t let that happen.

Make Sure You Coach Your Motivational Speaker for Great Results

The reason why coaching your speaker about what you need, what you want, what you don’t want, what you don’t need, and a little bit about what your people are going through, what they’re stressing about, what they love, what they hate, some of the inside jokes, the reason some of those things are important because they really help me, or whoever your speaker is, to prepare a customized program that’s meaningful and relevant. And I know that’s what you want.

You don’t want just a presentation, kind of a cardboard cutout of the speaker talking to you and your audience. No. You want somebody who can really reach through and grab them and let them know that he’s speaking to them, about them and for them, and that way they’ll really internalize and be prepared to accept and make lasting behavioral change based on that event.

So that’s pretty good, right? But all of it really in the end comes down to you. Yes, you’re going to hire the right speaker, yes you’re going to hire a speaker who can customize, but then don’t forget you need to go through and help your speaker know. You got to do a little bit of coaching, a little bit of talking.

Now in my case my job is to make it easier for you to do that. We don’t want to make it like a homework project where it’s just a horrible to-do to get me ready to go. We’ve got a really streamlined process, it’s very easy and it’s surprisingly quick, like shockingly quick. But at the same time it’s important.

So next time you’re hiring a motivational speaker or a keynote speaker, I want you to ask: What are you going to do to customize, and then I want you to follow up and say, What do I need to do to make sure you get all the information you need about us. My needs, my desires, my wants, my team, my organization, whatever.

All right, that’s easy, right? You can do that. I’d love to be your guy. I’d love to be the one answering that question. You can reach us at bradmontgomery.com or funnymotivationalspeakers.com. Make it a rock on day. Thanks.Similar Posts:

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